City Moves Toward Sale Of Seniors Center For I-78

Allentown City Council last night approved plans to accept the state's offer of $481,600 to acquire the Lehigh County Senior Citizens Center to make way for Interstate 78.

The center has occupied the former Alton Park Fire Station since 1976. It is the right-of-way of the proposed Route 309 corridor of I-78.

Council's approval stipulates that the money be used for a new center elsewhere in the city.

The Morning Call reported last month that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has given the center a year to relocate. The amount of its offer to buy the property was not disclosed until last night.

Another major issue before council - a proposal to transfer the city ambulance service to the health bureau and double the paramedic staff - was referred for discussion at its administration committee meeting at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday in the fifth-floor conference room of City Hall. Council members stressed that the delay in action should not be interpreted to mean anyone is opposed to the idea.

A council resolution regarding the senior citizens center notes that the city deeded the property to Lehigh County for $1 in 1975 and a portion of the deed said the premises must be operated as a senior citizens center or it would revert to the city.

The PennDOT purchase includes $449,000 for the building and $32,600 for the parking area.

Joseph Farkas, executive director of the center, said its board of directors is satisfied with the offer. He said it is higher than the figure given by an independent appraisal.

Farkas said the center board hopes to double the amount of space it has in Alton Park. "This community needs a center at least twice that size," he added.

Council President Watson W. Skinner remarked: "We would like to get a higher buck, but . . . "

He then asked for a vote. It was unanimously affirmative by the six council members attending. Councilman Frank J. Palencar is vacationing in Europe.

Councilwoman Karen Ritter requested that two resolutions dealing with the transfer and upgrading of the ambulance service be sent to committee.

"There are some things I want to look into," she said. "I could not feel comfortable in making a decision tonight."

Skinner asked Health Director Gary L. Gurian if there a need for immediate action. Gurian replied that the city is applying for a $90,000 state grant and the health bureau's budget must be sent to the state Health Department by Aug. 15.

Councilwoman Barbara Irvine, head of the administration committee, said it could consider the ambulance resolutions and receive public comment next week. The full council will act on the resolutions at its Aug. 7 meeting.

Skinner and Councilman John E. Harry stressed that the delay is not to be viewed as a threat to the measures. "Our concern is primarily cost," Skinner said.

Catherine Stewart, who was involved in an "incredibly serious accident" last August, urged the expansion of the paramedic staff of the ambulances.

"I would have been dead if it weren't for a paramedic," she said.

She recalled that the primary ambulance was on another call, but one of the paramedics came to the scene of her accident to provide treatment beyond what the emergency medical technicians could handle.

Jerome Landis, a diabetic for 25 years, also credited paramedics for his being alive.

Janis Reinert, a member of the Allentown Community of Neighborhood Organizations, said it supports expansion of the paramedic service. "Allentown is a great city and we should have the best," she said.

She said CNO is against charging residents who are transported by ambulance. She noted that it "worked very hard to keep it a free service" when a user fee was proposed during the administration of former Mayor Frank Fischl.

Council is being asked to support spending $190,000 next year to add a second life-support ambulance and eight paramedics and transfer jurisdiction of the service from the police department to the health bureau.

The city would use the state grant to offset the cost of the program. The estimated cost of eight more paramedics is $215,000 for salary and fringe benefits and about $75,000 for purchasing and equipping another advanced life- support ambulance.

In another health matter, council authorized a supplemental appropriation $7,750 into the general fund to account for a state Health Department grant for a special HTLV-IIIantibody screening and counseling program for the health bureau's sexually transmitted disease control program. The antibody is a presumptive indicator of exposure to AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).